The words are out of Mark Swales’ mouth before Wrexham’s new director of women’s football can retrieve them, left hanging in the November Welsh air outside the gates of The Rock, a picturesque ground at Rhosymedre on the outskirts of Wrexham that is preparing for its first match as the official home of Wrexham Women.
Advertisement
The natural response would be to scoff, gently returning the words to Swales, who joined Wrexham in October after 12 years in the Football Association, with a gentle pat on the back and a wish of luck.
Since the 2009-10 season, only three teams (Cardiff City, Swansea City and Cardiff Met) have won the Welsh top flight, advancing to the qualifying stages of the Champions League. No Welsh team has reached the Champions League proper.
On Sunday afternoon, just an hour and a half before kick-off against six-time league champions Swansea City, the small circle of Wrexham staff gathered around Swales transforms into something of a congregation.
The vision is simple, yet grandiose: over the next four or five years, Wrexham will consistently win the Welsh league, opening the door to the Champions League.
Advertisement
“The by-product of both is: how can Wrexham Women help Welsh football grow? The ambition is to consistently perform at our highest level, use the European appeal to attract better players, help the league professionalise and hopefully work with the likes of Cardiff and Swansea, who already have that professional team, to help the other clubs in the league grow and develop too,” says Swales.
“But I’d be lying if we didn’t say that, actually, the Champions League and seeing 10,000 people at the Hippodrome come to support the girls would be incredible.”
Ambitions like this could be chalked up to wishful thinking if this club weren’t so famous for turning these types of dreams into reality.
Sunday represented the first step in that journey – Wrexham Women’s official return to The Rock this season, with title formally in their name, becoming the first women’s team in the Welsh leagues to own their own stadium.
Advertisement
It is a move that puts Wrexham, who have finished third and fourth since returning to the top flight and reaching two Welsh Cup finals, more in sync with some Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs in England.
With a capacity of 3,000 people (only 500 seated), The Rock is not a place to host potential Champions League opponents. But Swales sees the purchase more as a cornerstone than a standalone site.
Having designated high-performance facilities for the women’s first team and academy has been a point of discussion at the club since the club’s takeover in 2021 by Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds and television producer and actor Rob Mac.
Forced to fold in 2016 due to lack of funds, the women’s team won promotion to the top flight, known as Adran Premier, in 2023 and announced 10 semi-professional contracts the following year. Wrexham is currently the only club in Wales’ top flight, a largely amateur and semi-professional division, to have players (two) on full-time contracts.
Advertisement
Off-field appointments have also been made, with the arrival of former Aston Villa assistant manager and Leicester women’s academy director Jenny Sugarman in the summer as head coach, and Swales, who served as technical director of Chelsea’s women’s academy and, more recently, as senior women’s coach development lead at the FA.
But buying The Rock in August, where Wrexham trained and played but was owned by Welsh League side Cefn Druids, is possibly the most tangible leap of faith yet.
While the women’s team used the pitch during pre-season, the facilities and pitch did not meet the Football Association of Wales’s (FAW) basic licensing regulations for competitive play, meaning the women’s team began the Adran Premier season by playing home games in Buckley, 11 miles away, while The Rock regained basic form.
New light bulbs were fitted to the floodlights, goal posts were replaced, walls were repainted, locker room flooring was replaced, telephone lines were installed and dial-up internet access was replaced with proper Wifi. The electrical wiring on the property needed a complete refurbishment, while much of the fencing around the property required repairs. A portion of the pitch also needed to be reinstalled, and an agreement was reached with the FAW to relocate the pitch next summer.
Advertisement
Which is why, 90 minutes before kick-off of Wrexham’s Adran Premier match against Swansea, there is a tangible buzz around the place, shivers of months-long exhaustion colliding with the possibilities at stake.
Because there is still a lot to address.
Architect Jonathan Leary, who has also worked with the club on the refurbishment of the Kop Stand, as well as Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium and Liverpool’s Anfield, spends the hour before kick-off exploring the area, excitedly discussing the potential of what can be done with the huge rock wall on the north side of the pitch once the vines are removed.
“The key thing we’ve done over these last two months is get to a level where we can host a game like this,” Swales says.
Advertisement
“We’re in the early stages of development plans. We’ve had site visits, an initial conversation about what’s possible, and in the end it’s going to come down to what Michael (Williamson CEO) and the owners decide is what we want to invest in this facility.”
Swales has a Christmas list. At the top there are bespoke gym facilities, as well as a designated area for rehabilitation and medical equipment, ensuring that the women’s team no longer have to share and accommodate in the full-time facilities and environment of the men’s first team.
The club’s women’s academy will also work at The Rock. Transforming Wrexham into a hub for the development of women’s football in the north, rather than a detour for aspiring footballers on their way to Manchester, Liverpool or other parts of the north-west of England, has been a long-standing ambition.
“It’s been said many times that with the success the men’s side of the club has had, the growth has been faster than I ever imagined,” Swales says.
Advertisement
“But the infrastructure and the people behind it are not where they probably need to be. The same goes for this project: suddenly we have started to grow. Everyone is finding their place, finding what is right and you will make some mistakes, but in reality we have a blank canvas and we can move forward, let’s do it right the first time.”
Fittingly, Wrexham’s second leg came against Swansea City, the same team Wrexham hosted two years ago as they returned to the top flight for the first time since the women’s team was forced to withdraw in 2016.
That match finished 3-3, a sign of Wrexham’s ability to compete at this level. Sunday’s match ended with a loud cry that Wrexham can conquer, goalscorer Rosie Hughes scoring Wrexham’s fourth goal in the 95th minute in a 4-2 win and sending Wrexham to the top of the table.
As the 509 fans in attendance heaped praise on Hughes, Williamson shouted: “Cardiff 3-2 down to TNS!” sharing your phone screen with an image of the table. Swales shows a mirror screen in Williamson’s direction. “We are first in the league!”
For now, nothing seems too crazy.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Wrexham FC, women’s football
2025 The Athletic Media Company